When it is called for

Talking about anger, Maharaja, how does one judge for oneself that our anger, or another’s, is not personally motivated?

We have to be very careful with that. For example, I have many times been responsible for Prabhupada’s facilities in this movement, in various services. Sometimes, I saw that it was being misused or not properly cared for and sometimes, I became angry. I may have also committed some offences in the course of that anger by being unduly, inappropriately strong with people and so on…

Even if one is in management, talking about my own position really, I realized that one is not saved from reactions to offences that are committed in the course of duty. So, that is scary! In the course of duty, I am correcting these devotees for Prabhupada… I slapped him for Prabhupada (laughter); he deserved it!

I had a rascal devotee who wanted to drive the sankirtan bus and he had no license at all. We had a professional driver but he (the rascal devotee) was a muscle man so one day, he just threw out the driver of the bus and he started driving the bus himself and he totalled it – totally smashed it to pieces. I didn’t lose it… I was reasonable… I spoke with him, explained to him his mistake and so on… I didn’t blast him. A few hours later, he was outside beating up a devotee. I went to the spot and then lost it… I gave him a serious slap!

I wouldn’t do that anymore although it was very satisfying at that time.